Confronting Extractivism & Corporate Power

Women human rights defenders (WHRDs) worldwide defend their lands, livelihoods and communities from extractive industries and corporate power. They stand against powerful economic and political interests driving land theft, displacement of communities, loss of livelihoods, and environmental degradation.

Why resist extractive industries?

Extractivism is an economic and political model of development that commodifies nature and prioritizes profit over human rights and the environment. Rooted in colonial history, it reinforces social and economic inequalities locally and globally. Often, Black, rural and Indigenous women are the most affected by extractivism, and are largely excluded from decision-making. Defying these patriarchal and neo-colonial forces, women rise in defense of rights, lands, people and nature.

Critical risks and gender-specific violence

WHRDs confronting extractive industries experience a range of risks, threats and violations, including criminalization, stigmatization, violence and intimidation.  Their stories reveal a strong aspect of gendered and sexualized violence. Perpetrators include state and local authorities, corporations, police, military, paramilitary and private security forces, and at times their own communities.

Acting together

AWID and the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition (WHRD-IC) are pleased to announce “Women Human Rights Defenders Confronting Extractivism and Corporate Power”; a cross-regional research project documenting the lived experiences of WHRDs from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

We encourage activists, members of social movements, organized civil society, donors and policy makers to read and use these products for advocacy, education and inspiration.

Share your experience and questions!

Tell us how you are using the resources on WHRDs Confronting extractivism and corporate power.

◾️ How can these resources support your activism and advocacy?

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Thank you!

AWID acknowledges with gratitude the invaluable input of every Woman Human Rights Defender who participated in this project. This project was made possible thanks to your willingness to generously and openly share your experiences and learnings. Your courage, creativity and resilience is an inspiration for us all. Thank you!

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Cada programa comprende diversas estrategias que abarcan desde la generación y difusión de conocimientos, investigación aplicada, incidencia política y formación de alianzas, hasta convocatorias a diálogos estratégicos.

En nuestro Informe Anual 2011 encontrarán una síntesis de los principales logros alcanzados en cada una de los programas de AWID durante el año.  

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Ayanda Denge

Category
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Region
Africa
Sub Sahara Africa
Date of birth
Date of death / disappearance
Cause of death / disappearance

Killed

“I am a wonder… Therefore I have been born by a mother! As I begin to stutter, my life has been like no other…” - Ayanda Denge  (read the whole poem below)

Ayanda Denge was a transwomxn, sex worker, activist, poet. She was Xhosa, from Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. After travelling through different cities of the country, she moved to Cape Town. 

As a committed and fervent social justice activist, she fought for the rights of sex workers, trans persons, and for those of people living with HIV and AIDS. She was also a motivational speaker on cancer awareness, and campaigned for affordable and social housing, especially for poor and working-class people. Ayanda stood tall as a mountain against different and often abusive faces of discrimination. 

“Being transgender is not a double dose, but it’s a triple dose of stigmatisation and discrimination. You are discriminated against for your sexual identity, you are discriminated against for your work, and you are discriminated against for your HIV status.” - Ayanda Denge, 2016

She was acting chairperson at the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) and also worked as an Outreach Coordinator at Sisonke, a national sex workers’ movement in South Africa. 

“From us, from our regional head office, to SWEAT where I sit on the board, to Sisonke, a movement of sex workers in Cape Town. We all amalgamate, we have one cry and it’s a cry that is recognised internationally by international sex workers. We want decriminalisation of sex work.” - Ayanda Denge, 2016

She lived in the Ahmed Kathrada House, which was being occupied by the Reclaim the City campaign for social housing. In 2018, Ayanda was elected house leader. On 24 March 2019, she was stabbed to death in her room. The year prior, another resident was killed.

Reclaim the City draws a connection between the safety of the house residents and the Provincial Government withholding electricity and the human right to water: 

“We cannot separate the safety of women and LGBTQI people living in the occupation from the refusal by the Western Cape Provincial Government to turn the electricity and water back on at Ahmed Kathrada House.

The house is pitch black at night. We need lights to keep each other safe. It is as if the Province wishes to punish poor and working class people, whose only crime is that we needed a home. While they may disagree with our reasons for occupying, they should be ashamed of themselves for putting politics before the safety and dignity of residents of this city.

Rest in Peace comrade Ayanda Denge, we shall remember you as we carry the torch forward in the struggle for decent well-located housing.”

Poem by Ayanda: 

I am a wonder…
Therefore I have been born by a mother!
As I begin to stutter,
My life has been like no other.
Born in pain
Nourished by rain
For me to gain
Was living in a drain.
As I shed a tear
I stand up and hold my spear.
Voices echo, do not fear
Challenges within a year,
Challenges of hurt are on my case;
Community applauds as they assume I have won my race;
But in reality my work strides at a tortoise pace;
On bended knee I bow and ask for grace.
For the Lord
Is my Sword;
To remind humanity
That he provides sanity.
Why Lord am I this wonder?
The Lord answers me with the rain and thunder,
For questioning my father
Who has in the book of lambs
A name called Ayanda.
From the streets my life was never sweet
The people I had to meet;
At times I would never greet;
Even though I had to eat;
I’d opt to take a bow
Rather than a seat

Listen to the poem in Ayanda’s voice

“For my life represents that of a lotus flower, that out of murky and troubled waters I bloomed to be beautiful and strong...” - Ayanda Denge, watch and listen 

Tributes: 

“Ayanda, I want to say to you that you are still a survivor, in our hearts and minds. You are gone but you are everywhere, because you are love. How beautiful it is to be loved, and to give love. And Ayanda, that is the gift that you have given us. Thank you for all of the love, we truly did need you. Going forward, I promise to you that we will all commit to continue with the struggle that you have dedicated so much energy and your time to. And we will commit ourselves to pursuing justice in this awful ending to your life.” - Transcript of a message, in a farewell Tribute to Ayanda

“Ayanda was an activist by nature. She knew her rights and would not mind fighting for the rights of others. For me, it was no shock that she was involved with many organizations and it was known that she was a people’s person. It did not need to be the rights of LGBTI but just the rights of everyone that she stood for.” - Ayanda’s sister
 

Snippet FEA collaborator and allies Photo 3 (ES)

La foto presenta a cinco mujeres (Sopo está en el medio) de pie en lo alto de una escalera, frente a un muro de piedra, sosteniendo carteles en los que están escritos eslóganes georgianos.

AWID EN 2015: Construire notre impact collectif

En 2015, l’AWID s’est développée et diversifiée.

Nous avons redoublé d’efforts pour préparer le 13e Forum de l’AWID ; nous avons consacré une grande partie de notre énergie au Programme de développement pour l’après-2015 et aux processus des Nations Unies relatifs au financement du développement. Nous avons poursuivi le travail de fond que nous menons dans nos domaines de prédilection.

Coup d'oeil à l'intérieur du rapport

Le contexte

  • Nous constatons toujours la dégradation rapide de la démocratie et des institutions démocratiques, ainsi que le rétrécissement concomitant des espaces ouverts à la dissidence.
  • Des crises systémiques multiples et simultanées (énergétique, alimentaire, financière et climatique) aggravent les inégalités et créent des difficultés majeures Les grandes entreprises jouent un rôle prépondérant dans l’élaboration des priorités du développement.
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  • Les fondamentalismes religieux sont omniprésents et gagnent en puissance.
  • De nouvelles formes de violences en ligne fondées sur le genre ont fait leur apparition.

En réaction, nous avons choisi de sortir de nos cloisonnements.

De plus en plus, et dans le monde entier, les mouvements de défense des droits des femmes s’allient avec d’autres mouvements pour exprimer la nature systémique et intersectionnelle des problèmes précédemment évoqués et d’autres problématiques.

Notre impact

  • Pour élaborer des stratégies et des actions de plaidoyer, nous devons connaître les faits
  • Pour échanger les connaissances et agir solidairement, nous avons besoin d’une solide communauté en ligne
  • Pour construire notre pouvoir collectif, nous devons collaborer
  • Pour influencer mes processus internationaux, nous devons améliorer notre accès et amplifier nos voix
  • Pour reposionner le pouvoir, nous devons rendre visible et souligner l’importance du rôle que jouent d’ores et déjà les mouvements féministes et les mouvements de défense des droits des femmes

 

Nos Members

 

 

Lire le rapport complet

 

 

 

Devo fazer alguma preparação para responder ao inquérito?

Tendo em conta que o inquérito WITM foca-se nas realidades do financiamento de organizações feministas, a maioria das perguntas aborda o tópico do financiamento do seu grupo entre 2021-2023. Será preciso ter essas informações facilmente acessíveis para preencher o inquérito (por exemplo, os seus orçamentos anuais e as principais fontes de financiamento).

Snippet FEA Meet the Solidarity Network (FR)

SYNDICAT RÉSEAU SOLIDARITÉ

Nous vous présentons le syndicat Réseau Solidarité, un syndicat de la santé et des services dirigé majoritairement par des femmes. Émergeant en réponse à la précarité croissante, aux salaires insuffisants et aux environnements de travail hostiles auxquels les travailleur·euses géorgien·es sont confrontés quotidiennement, le Syndicat Réseau Solidarité se bat pour des lieux et des conditions de travail décents.

Son objectif? Créer un mouvement syndical national démocratique. Pour ce faire, il s'est associé à d'autres syndicats locaux et régionaux et a lentement constitué un réseau de syndicats, permettant à de plus en plus de travailleuses de devenir dirigeantes syndicales en cours de route.

Son approche politique est holistique. Pour le syndicat Réseau Solidarité, les questions relatives aux droits du travail sont directement liées aux programmes et réformes politiques et économiques nationaux plus larges. C'est pourquoi iels font pression pour la justice fiscale, les droits des femmes et des personnes LGBTQIA+, et luttent contre le démantèlement de l'État-providence géorgien.

Le syndicat Réseau Solidarité fait également partie de Grève Sociale Transnationale (Transnational Social Strike, TSS), une plate-forme et infrastructure politique inspirée par l'organisation des migrant·e·s, des femmes et des travailleur·euses essentiel·les qui s'efforcent de créer des liens entre les mouvements ouvriers à travers le monde et de fomenter la solidarité globale.

Rapport Annuel 2010

2010 rapport annuel

Notre rapport annuel 2010 souligne nos réalisations et l’impact de notre travail durant l'année.

Vous pouvez lire comment nous traduisons notre vision et mission en stratégies et en activités entreprises en collaboration avec les membres, partenaires et allié-e-s de l’AWID pour faire la promotion des droits des femmes et de l’égalité de genre à l’échelle mondiale.

Ce rapport comprend égalment des liens vers nos dernières publications.

Lire en ligne

هل مشاركتي سريّة؟

أكيد. سيتم محي اجوبتك بعد عملية معالجة المعطيات وتحليلها وسيتم استعمالها لأهداف بحثية فقط. لن تتم أبداً مشاركة المعطيات خارج AWID وسيتم معالجتها فقط عن طريق طاقم AWID والمستشارات/ين اللواتي/ اللذين يعملن/وا في مشروع "أين المال" معنا. خصوصيتكم/ن وسرّيتكم/ن هي في أعلى سلم أولوياتنا. سياسة الخصوصية متواجدة هنا.

Snippet FEA Decent Pay (EN)

Illustration of a white-skinned hand holding pink money over a turquoise background.

DECENT PAY

Reason to join 1

Be part of an international feminist membership organization and community. Our members are based in all regions of the world, learning and supporting each other in a global network based on solidarity.

Lucy O.

Biography

Avec plus de dix ans d'expérience en finance, Lucy a consacré sa carrière à développer les missions du secteur lucratif et non lucratif. Elle a notamment travaillé et été bénévole auprès d'organisations à but non lucratif. Issue du monde trépidant de la finance, Lucy reste à l'écoute des nouvelles compétences technologiques du domaine de la finance avec passion. Elle a rejoint l'AWID en 2014. Pendant son temps libre, elle aime écouter de la musique, voyager et pratiquer divers sports.

Position
Coordonnatrice de la Comptabilité
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Snippet FEA Sopo Japaridze Quote (ES)

"Sabemos que todo está en nuestra contra y hay muy pocas posibilidades de cambiar eso. Pero creemos en la intervención y creo que tenemos una oportunidad y deberíamos usarla. Es por eso que estamos haciendo todo lo que estamos haciendo. Estamos dispuestos a presionar por cosas inauditas".

- Sopo Japaridze para OpenDemocracy

Photo @სოლიდარობის ქსელი / Solidarity Network

Reason to join 6

Participa en el Foro Internacional de AWID - un importante encuentro feminista global—, y accede a descuentos especiales para afiliadxs de AWID y puntos de entrada para el diálogo virtual. Creado en conjunto por los movimientos feministas, el Foro es un espacio único para una discusión profunda y para dejar correr la imaginación, donde desafiamos y fortalecemos nuestros procesos organizativos, donde conectamos nuestras luchas y las realidades feministas.